Yesterday, a group of organizations, including OMB Watch, submitted concerns with the high-value datasets published on Data.gov in compliance with the requirements of the Open Government Directive (OGD) issued on Dec. 8. The OGD required that agencies submit at least three high value datasets within 45 days through Data.gov.   These groups outlined the major problems with the site and its implementation thus far.  I have summarized these issues below.

On Nov. 30, Congress and the President succeeded in tying the hands of the judicial system from releasing photographic evidence of American soldiers torturing detainees in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The Supreme Court today reversed a lower court ruling that the pictures must be released.

On Friday, the Obama administration released another set of visitor logs.  The list of 110 White House guests was compiled from public requests and includes names such as Brad Pitt, Jesse Jackson, and several business leaders.  This release is a positive step toward building a system of government transparency that is responsive to the public interest but we would still like to see the administration go further with this effort.

Today, the Justice Department released a pivotal policy statement on the way the Obama administration will govern use of the state secrets privilege.  The new policy will be implemented on Oct. 1.  This is a welcome step toward President Obama’s promise of an unprecedented level of openness and away from the former administration’s “just trust us” approach when using the privilege to withhold evidence in lawsuits against the government.  While it seems highly likely that previous administrations have used the unfettered privilege to avoid embarrassment or corruption charges, the Obama administration has limited its use to national security purposes.